ACT Forklift

Atlantic Coast Toyotalift - Providing experience based solutions in material handling, industrial cleaning, and compact construction equipment sales, service, parts, rental, and leasing. Established in 1951 as Vesco, current ownership since 1973, and serving customers in North Carolina and Virginia.

Friday, March 10, 2017

The warehouse version of the swiss army knife could well be the Columbia Par Car StockChaser. The unit can can be used for low level order picking with a deck that can haul 1200 lbs. The stand up operation and low step makes getting on and off a breeze, while working in a small area. The unit can come with battery exchange for long hour usage. The one pictured below has a tow hitch and can haul trailers through the facility. It really does offer a lot of options for the user, and does it all at a very economical price. The unit can serve as a support vehicle to warehouse operations for picking customer orders, towing materials across long distances, or just moving people throughout the facility quickly and safely.

Features

Extremely short turning radius

Tubular steel frame

Horn

Dual front wheels standard

Adjustable backrest

Available rapid battery exchange

Narrow-aisle operation

Contact ACT at 800-849-5438 for a demo, or visit our website at www.actforklift.com for general information. For personnel vehicle specific information, visit us at Columbia Par Car vehicles.

Thursday, March 2, 2017

We live in a world of unique products and services, so it makes sense that buyers need options on how to handle their unique requirements. While this piece of equipment may not solve many problems in the warehouse and distribution centers of the world, it is the swiss army knife of the agriculture world.

Mixed farming is an agricultural activity which obviously requires flexibility. By listening to you and observing you at work we have understood this and have developed solutions that allow you to easily carry out all of your tasks.

In one single day, you sometimes need to clean out stalls, feed cattle, handle bales, prepare silage, dig out a pond or look for a calf in a field. A Manitou will provide you with a Swiss knife of tools for your activity, with one single machine and a range of attachments.

Are you a poultry farmer? Manitou has given thought to the specific aspects of your job and offers several completely tailored solutions. Whether you need to build, maintain or clean your hen houses or silos, install pens, move prefabricated houses, feed the animals or load/unload lorries, we will surely have a solution that will increase your productivity.

The video below shows the tremendous range of solutions and helps bring solutions to those having a crappy day on the farm. While these units are fun to drive, they perform the work of many people and one unit takes the place of many pieces of equipment.

https://youtu.be/34jqNMoFZzA

Give us a call for all your off road handing needs because we have solutions for rent, purchase, or lease and the return on investment is quick. How are you going to do more with less, by getting the right equipment and variety of attachments to help one person do more, quicker and safer. Sound good? Give us a call at 800-849-5438 or visit us at www.actforklift.com.

Friday, February 24, 2017

In one of the most popular episodes of "The
Andy Griffith Show", there is a battle raging between Andy and Aunt Bee. The
episode is titled, “Call the Man”. In an attempt to save money, Aunt Bee buys 150 pounds of beef
from the town's new butcher. After her freezer breaks, she must choose between
hiring an expensive repair man or asking her old butcher for help. She buys the beef as a cost savings idea for
the family. In her attempts to keep the
savings, she is conflicted with asking her local butcher for help. After all,
he is the one that lost her business. Andy makes her bring it back and will not
use the local butcher to store beef that was not bought local. She requests the help of neighborhood friend Gomer
to repair the freezer, which turns out to be a disaster. Throughout the entire show, Andy tells her to
call the repairman and get the freezer fixed.
It is quite the visual comedy as Aunt Bee hauls the 150 lb. of beef
to the butcher, then back home again as a pack of dogs follow the wagon.

While there are advantages to cost savings, getting expert help saves money in the long
run. Trained professionals dealing with problems
like ours can bring solutions we would never think about while doing it quicker
than we can do it on our own. In the
material handling business, solutions come to you in the form of our
technicians, customer service representatives, sales people, and management
team. Our experience helps you because we have been there, done that, and not
once, but multiple times. We bring solutions from our body of work and
experiences, and this enables us to bring a solution that is not only cost
effective, but often is a cost reduction.

Looking at it from an equipment
purchase angle, compare the automobile and forklift purchase. While you pour over options on an auto, few
of those change your ability to use the auto on roads. The forklift purchase is quite different as
the options chosen determine height, width, length, aisle requirement, power,
UL rating, as well as the ability to use attachments. During an onsite survey, our experienced
associates ask questions that help drive the proper solution now, as well as
the future.

https://youtu.be/Ne2s2AtUUUU

The video above helps to clarify some of the many options when it comes to forklifts and the specifications and options. I encourage you to call the
professional to assist with problems and projects. Solutions come in many different forms, and partnering
with a solution provider helps you get back to the things that are important. For
more details, contact us at 800-849-5438 and check out our website at
www.actforklift.com.

Friday, February 17, 2017

Would you like the extended warranty with this purchase? If you have bought anything electronic in the last 10 years, you have been asked the question. Your answer is probably driven by several factors including price, quality, replacement cost, potential repair cost, etc. In my personal experience, I have purchased the extended warranty plans, some for big items and some for small items. For example, when I was a young man just out of college, I bought the extended warranty on my first ever new automobile purchase. It was a Ford Escort, and I believed it would help insure that my overall expense would be "controlled" as the major expenses would be covered in the event of a major repair. Later in life, I bought my first flat screen TV when they first came on the market. While I bought a quality brand, I bought the extended warranty for a couple of reasons. (1) Flat screen TV technology was new, and without product experience references to pull from, I elected to go with the extended warranty to get me past the fear of the unknown, and also because the repairs would be completed in my home and save me time as my wife and I had started a family.
So, my Ford Escort worked fine for the entire time I had it and I never had the need to file a claim and use the extended warranty to cover repair costs. My flat screen TV went out 2 days prior to the end of the extended warranty period, and the coverage kicked in, repairs were made, and I still use the TV years later.
Some would say I wasted my money on the automobile extended warranty. Maybe so, but I did have the piece of mind and confidence to purchase the new vehicle. It was a budget stretch for me, but allowed me to have something better than a used vehicle and control my budget with more of a known repair costs for the next 60 months.

Many product lines carry the extended warranty plans. Toyota offers the plan for purchase with their industrial equipment and the plans are called "Toyota Extra Care". While the automobile companies have their "bumper to bumper" plans, industrial equipment offers similar plans called Carriage to Counterweight. On electric powered equipment, some of the plans cost pennies per day with the most expensive plans costing less than $1 per day. Even on internal combustion equipment and the largest forklifts the plan costs less than $2 per day.
Toyota also offers a Powertrain protection plan that covers the internal components of the engine and transmission. These plans cost less than the Carriage to Counterweight plans.
The plans can be added to a new equipment purchase and/or lease at the time of order. The plan can also be added after order and delivery as long as it is signed and put in place within 30 days or 60 hours from the delivery date. Just like with any extended warranty plan, there is a contract to sign that includes all language about inclusions, exclusions, and responsibilities.
Our field staff of sales and customer service representatives can answer additional questions and provide all the material for review. Here is a link to the Toyota site with details.

https://www.toyotaforklift.com/warranties

This is just another one of the solutions offered here at ACT. Find out more by contacting us today at 800-849-5438 or at www.actforklift.com

Friday, January 6, 2017

Okay, so maybe not
LOL funny, but it reminds us that with the new year, we have a new opportunity
for evaluation, dreams, and goals for 2017 that can guide us where we want to
go. We can wipe the board clean of 2016 and create a new direction for 2017.

Here is a list of the
five most popular personal resolutions made most every year.

#5 - Take up a
new hobby.

#4 - Make more
money.

#3 - Improve
relationships.

#2 - Stop smoking.

#1 - Losing weight.

The resolution on losing weight reminds me of a story that might hit too close
to home for most of us. A woman walked into her bathroom at home. As she
did, she saw her husband weighing himself on the bathroom scales, sucking in
his stomach. The woman thought to herself, "He thinks that he will weigh
less by sucking in his stomach." So, the woman rather sarcastically said
to her husband, "That’s not going to help." Her husband said,
"Sure it will. It’s the only way I can see the numbers."

The perception
of the husband's actions was different than the reality. He was not
trying to affect the results of the number, rather he was trying to see his
weight. In other words, he was looking for a measurement to confirm the
reality of his weight. He knew a few pounds can sneak up and latch on to
you during the holidays.

So,
what unwanted result latched on to your business in 2016? Do you have a
way of "weighing" the effect of those unhealthy habits? What
alterations do you need to make to accommodate the changes that 2016 brought
your way? What actions do you need to take to get your business healthy
again? Do you have business partners that can help you get healthy?
Can they help you with measurements? Reports? Implementation?

We hope you have a great 2017 and we
hope ACT can assist you with plans for a healthy 2017. We hope to work with you
on confirming past goals, measuring results, reporting details, and discussing
corrective actions to get back on track. We have experienced associates ready
to assist you and your team reach your goals. We provide the measurements and
reports to verify we are on the path to reaching our goals We will meet
with you and your team to discuss methods to assist with the
implementation of ideas and projects to keep on the track
to meeting our goal and resolutions for 2017. Let's make
2017 a great year and let's get started now.

Friday, December 30, 2016

I don't think anyone likes all the inspections required to run a business, and it is easy to let them slide. It is a large task to keep current on your inventory, much less the annual inspections required for certain equipment. We can help. We offer free inventory evaluations that include recommendations and requirements for each different type. One area that people overlook until it is too late is the Fire Door areas of their facility. Take a look at this short video on fire door safety and required inspections for this type of equipment.

That inspection sticker is a great piece of mind that you meet the requirement but more importantly that your associates are safer in case of a fire. This door happens to be at the ACT Winston-Salem facility and it gives us piece of mind that the door will close in the case of a fire in our forklift shop area, and that it will close at the proper speed.
Take a look at that aerial work platform Blake is using in the video. This scissor lift requires an annual inspection to insure that it is operating safely and properly. We can help identify the other areas in your facility that require inspection and certification, and look forward to helping you have a great 2017. Contact us at www.actforklift.com or at 800-849-5438. Happy New Year.

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Often times when customers move into a building, the original design and equipment are not optimized for the new tenant and intended use. The shipping
and receiving areas of the building show signs of an ill fit and improper equipment use. Different load weights,
truck and trailer sizes, shipping methods, and other factors often result in very expensive and extensive damage to the equipment and the building.

Take this illustration, for example. Here we can see a trailer is too narrow for the dock equipment. The trailer is backed into a dock and the seals are not designed to
accommodate the trailer. This puts too much pressure on the bumper and allows the
trailer to back in too deep. This causes several problems, and many of the problems can
be seen here if you look closely.

Start with the trailer - See how the
bottom corner has recessed nicely into the center of the bumper? This is due to advanced wear and deterioration of the bumper material. Over time, this allows each trailer to
back in too far. This reduces the effectiveness of the bumper and stresses other areas of the building and dock equipment.

Now look at the wall - Over time,
the bumper deterioration allows the trailer to back in too deep,

creating a rut in the bumper, eventually rendering the bumper completely useless. When the is bumper was new, it had twice as much surface and had a square and even face. This bumper pad has 5" of worn surface, so the trailers are 5" closer to the dock than with the original design. The worn bumper surface also reduces the shock absorbing qualities of a dock bumper. Now you can see noticeable stress on the building itself in cracks, and chunks. Trailers are slowly chipping away at the wall and
causing noticeable stress fractures.

Now look at the seal - Too much pressure on the seal now allows the trailer to slide
inside the edges because the bumper doesn’t provide enough resistance. This causes buckling of the exterior wall panels from the repeated hard bounces

This is just a small example and photo of the cause/effect
relationship between the dock bumpers, dock seals, and dock levelers/boards in the shipping and receiving area.

It doesn’t have to result in damage to the building and raising your “cost of doing
business”.

Because of the newer equipment that is available now,
features provide exceptional shock absorption, tighter seals around the
trailers, and of course protects the integrity of the dock opening and surrounding building.
Steel faced bumpers that prevent ruts and maintain their thickness keep the
truck from backing into the building and protects walls. Properly sized seals
made of dense foam add additional shock absorption and also protect the walls.

Make an appointment today and let us share some ideas with you that will save you money while increasing the value of your docks and doors. Visit us at www.actforklift.com for more details or call us at 800-849-5438.